A Letter Written on Mar 6, 1958

The Orleans Arena Theatre
Orleans Town Hall
Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Gordon H. Argo
Producer

Lawrence H. Wismer
Director

March 6, 1958

Dear Pat,

How very distinctive! - your letter-head, the orthography! How I wish I might do something other than merely scratch an approximation of the letters! There is an element of time involved, I imagine. I usually write as if I were typing.

To the point: your request to return to Orleans this summer. From a personal view-point, it's a delightful idea. It has ramifications, however, of which you must be aware. We pay expenses for Stage Managers; we don't for relatively inexperienced actors - room free, at the most. Could you bear (financially or emotionally) the cut-back? If so, then you're in.

Larry has written to say "fine" to the idea. Now you must organize a picture of what your new situation would be: young actress working away at a million other things when she is not cast. I am reminded of Madge Mezey who was S.M. one year and actress the next year. At first she was uncomfortable and even a bit resentful of the fact that when she was not cast she ended up doing some of the little jobs that she had done (or supervised) when she was S.M. Actually, they were the type of things M'Lou and others did last year.

The point is: if you were absolutely new to the company you could find it quite natural to be doing those things which you might expect not to do having dropped the full duties of S.M.

Otherwise, you would be a full acting member of the acting company - not technical and not apprentice (since we have none). Your case would be "acting comes first". Last year we used you only when we could afford to weaken our tech staff.

Your year sounds exciting and exhausting. Taper off a bit and let each experience soak deeper before jumping into a new one. You are probably making my old mistake - extensive rather than intensive. So few jobs in my life have I ever done really well. I was always complimented for doing so many jobs "rather" well. Here endeth the first lesson.

Our year in N.Y. is exhausting, profitable, very unsettling and I'll be damned glad it's over soon. There is every temptation professionally to come back but I wonder if the four of us can stand the strain - if it is really worth it. I am at present Production Manager at the new RNA theatre. We open a new play tonite: The Long Gallery. Look for our reviews and you may guess what my next move will be.

Love to all: M'Lou, Jack, Randie - and to Mrs. Wallis

Gordon